Wausau could give downtown auto shop $375K to expand on west side

May 6, 2014

Kent Olson, President of Olson Tire & Auto Service, plans to open a second location at the former Stettin Elementary School at 3515 Stewart Ave. in Wausau. He is asking the city for $375,000 in grants and loans for the project. / Theresa Clift/Daily Herald Media

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Daily Herald Media

WAUSAU — The city is considering giving $375,000 in grants and loans to help Olson Tire & Auto Service expand its business to the city’s west side.

The company, which services cars and trucks and sells tires, plans to open a second location at the site of the former Stettin Elementary School next spring and on Tuesday asked the City Economic Development Committee for help financing the project.

Olson opened in Wausau in 1987 and has undergone two expansions to its building at 601 Forest St. downtown, once in 2005 and again last year, when a car wash and storage facility were added.

“We are now poised to expand again to meet both our customers’ needs, our burgeoning staff and the opportunities we are not able to service from this location,” President Kent Olson wrote in a letter to the city.

In an April 28letter to the city, Olson asked for $375,000 from the city, at least $275,000 in the form of a grant from a special taxing district and the rest as a loan.

Economic Development Committee members were supportive of the project, but wanted more details, such as how much current owner Beth O’Mally paid for the property when she bought it from the Wausau School District. The city plans to file an open records request for that information, because the district would not tell city representatives who asked for the purchase price over the phone, Community Development Director Ann Werth said.

Some members also want the city to provide more money in the form of a loan and less in grants. The terms will be discussed in a special closed-session Economic Development Committee meeting Tuesday. Olson said he is open to negotiations.

“More of it should come back (the city) so we can re-purpose the funding,” Economic Development Committee Member Lisa Rasmussen said, explaining her expectation that more of city funding be in the form of loans. “Almost 70 percent of the ask is grant funded and not coming back to us.”

Committee member Dave Oberbeck was also concerned whether the city should be spending so much on a service station and tire dealer.

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“I think it’s too much (money) for this type of development,” he said. “Development costs should be the responsibility of the business ... We have to look at the taxpayers being investors.”

Committee member Romey Wagner said the project would make the city’s west-side entrance much more attractive.

O’Malley has accepted Olson’s offer to buy the blighted building, which is contingent upon the city financing, among other things, Olson said.

Olson said it is too soon to determine whether the expansion would still happen if he did not receive city money.

“I can’t say it’s going to happen with or without it,” he said. “I can say without it makes it much more difficult and much less attractive,” he said.

The school, located just west of O’Malley Honda, is assessed at $790,000 and has been vacant since 2001.

“I’m excited to see something happen to Stettin school,” Rasmussen said. “We talk about blight and that (building) does define what blight looks like along that block.”

The new location will also include a new Subway restaurant or other fast food restaurant, like Olson’s downtown location.

“I believe we made a beautiful entrance when you come on Grand Avenue in to downtown Wausau,” Olson said at Tuesday’s meeting. “We want to emulate the exact footprint of what we’ve done downtown”

Olson said he has been searching for a place to expand for several years.

The new location will create nine to 12 jobs immediately, and 17 to 23 jobs within three years, Olson wrote in a city document. Those jobs would have salaries ranging from less than $15,000 to more than $60,000. The new Subway would create 10 to 14 jobs immediately, Olson wrote.

The project’s total cost will be $1.6 million, Olson estimated.

Olson hopes to open the new location in March of 2015; the restaurant could open sooner.